• General information to authors
• instructions to authors
• latex style files
• article processing charges
• fast track
• proofs
• offprint

General information for authors

The Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences is an open access journal that publishes internationally peer reviewed primary research and review papers in the fields of sciences represented at the Estonian Academy of Sciences (mathematics, physics, chemistry, cosmology, industrial engineering, etc.). The submitted manuscripts should meet the requirements described below.

It is essential that the paper is written in clear, proper English (British or American usage is accepted but not a mixture of these). Authors are welcome to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist with language editing of their manuscripts or should have their manuscripts checked by a competent linguist or native English speaker before submission. Please also note that the Estonian Academy Publishers’ policy on the use of AI tools, covering authors and peer reviewers, is described in detail on our website under Editorial policies. The editors reserve the right to adjust style to certain standards of uniformity.

Manuscripts requiring substantial language editing may be returned to the authors for revision before entering the copyediting process. Editors reserve the right to charge an additional fee for extensive language editing or reference restructuring if the author is unable to bring the manuscript into compliance with the Instructions for Authors. This applies to cases where the article’s structure, linguistic quality or citation style deviates substantially from the required standards. The amount of the fee is specified in the Article Processing Charges section below.

Submission, review and resubmission processes

1. The manuscripts must be submitted online as outlined in the instructions below.
2. The manuscript will be sent to at least two reviewers and one member of the Editorial Board.
3. After receiving reviews, the authors must revise the manuscript according to the comments of the reviewers and return it to the Editorial Office.
4. If there is a need for a re-review, the manuscript will be sent back to the reviewers and the authors must revise the manuscript once more.
5. When the manuscript has been revised by the authors, the Editorial Board will make the final decision on the acceptability of the article for publication.

All scientific papers to be published in the journal are peer reviewed internationally. The duration of the reviewing process is variable, depending on numerous factors. Typically, the entire process from the submission of the first version of the manuscript to publication takes 4 to 6 months.

instructions for authors

PUBLICATION TYPES  

Research articles should describe the results and applications of unpublished original research and introduce novel theoretical considerations and ideas. The length of an abstract is up to 1600 characters with spaces (approx. 250 words). Mathematical expressions and citations in the abstract should be avoided. The abstract should be followed by keywords (max. 7), with the first keyword indicating the field of the study. Research articles should be supported by relevant illustrations and tables and preferably not exceed 26 double-spaced pages (max. 12 printed pages), including Abstract, illustrations, tables, References, Summary and Conclusions. Each page exceeding this volume will incur a fee of €80 per page.     

Review articles should provide a broad and balanced overview of the current state of the field of study, highlight the main methodologies and research techniques in use, and may identify gaps in existing knowledge. The length of an abstract is up to 1600 characters with spaces (approx. 250 words). The authors of review articles are also asked to present their CVs (not more than 100 words) and photographs. 

Short communications follow the structure of research articles, but their length should be no more than 9 double-spaced pages (max. 4 printed pages, approx. 2000 words), including figures, tables, references, notes and a conclusion. 

Announcements inform readers about scientific news and events and introduce books, new technologies and equipment. The length of an announcement is up to 1 printed page (max. 500 words). 

manuscript elements  

The manuscript elements should be in the following order: Title, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Data availability statement, Acknowledgements, Appendixes or Supplementary material (if any), References and Summary in Estonian (not obligatory for foreign authors).

Authors of the article should name the subject by which the field of the article can be determined.

Title
The title should be concise but informative. The arrangement and selection of words is important for indexing purposes.

Short running title
A short running title is a brief version of the article’s full title. It is used in the page headers of the journal to help readers identify the article quickly and to maintain a clean, consistent layout throughout the issue. A short running title should be a natural, concise shortening of the full title, generally no more than 50 characters, preserving its core meaning and avoiding unnecessary abbreviations or overly technical terms.

The names, including one forename in full, affiliations and full affiliation addresses of the authors should follow the title of the paper. The corresponding author should be marked by an asterisk and his/her email address should be given.

Abstract
The abstract (not more than 1600 characters with spaces) should be a self-contained summary of the paper, presenting concisely the objectives of the work reported, its methodology, results and conclusions. Mathematical expressions and citations in the abstract should be avoided.

Keywords
The abstract should be followed by keywords (max. 7), with the first keyword indicating the field of the study.

Introduction
The introduction should be a review of the pertinent work, cite appropriate references and include a clear statement of the object of investigation.

Conclusions
Conclusions should give a short summary of the achieved results, followed by possible further steps and extensions.

Data availability statement
Data availability statement should be placed in a separate section before the acknowledgements and should describe where the research data associated with the paper are available, and under what conditions the data can be accessed.

• If your data are in a repository, include hyperlinks and persistent identifiers (e.g. DOI or accession number) for the data where available.
• If your data cannot be shared openly, for example to protect study participant privacy, then this should be explained.
• Include both original data generated in your research and any secondary data reuse that supports your results and analyses.
• For manuscripts that do not report data, authors can state in their data availability statement that data are contained within the article.

Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements of people, grants, funds, etc. should be a separate section before references. The names of funding organisations should be written in full. The institutions or persons covering the publication costs must be shown in this section.

References
A reference template for the Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences is available in most major reference management programmes, including Zotero, Mendeley and Papers. These software support Citation Style Language styles. Using citation plug-ins from these products, authors only need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article, after which citations and references will be automatically formatted in the journal’s style.

References to the literature cited should be indicated at the appropriate place in the text. Either the author–year or numerical style of citing may be used. All references included in the list of references should also appear in the text and vice versa.

References to papers by the same author are sorted according to the number of authors (one, two, three or more). Those of a single author, ordered chronologically, are followed by papers with two authors, arranged in alphabetical order according to the name of the second author (and chronologically, if needed). Papers with three or more authors cited in the text as, e.g. Jones et al., should be given in chronological order after those with two authors.

In the reference list, the names of the first six authors should be cited, followed by et al.

The original titles and publishers in Roman and Slavic alphabets should be retained. The English translation of the title should be provided in brackets immediately after the original title. Example: Versiani, A. F. V., Oribe, C. Y. and Rezende, S. F. L. R. 2013. A aprendizagem das organizações gerada pelas práticas formais no ambiente de trabalho (Organizational learning generated by formal practices in the work environment). RAM, 14(4), 15–44. 

If material is available online, the address and date of access should be given.

Authors are required to include Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for all references where available, ensuring accurate and efficient access to the cited sources.

If the author–year style is used, references to the literature should be indicated at the appropriate place in the text by using the names of the authors and the year of publishing. A reference list in alphabetical order should appear at the end of the article.

EXAMPLES FOR AUTHOR-YEAR STYLE:

(a) Book
Dehmlow, E. V. and Dehmlow, S. S. 1993. Phase Transfer Catalysis. 3rd ed. VCH, Weinheim.

Book by DOI
Garfinkel, A., Shevtsov, J. and Guo, Y. 2017. Modeling Life. Springer, Cham.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59731-7

Book chapter
Cairns, A., Carel, J. M. and Li, X. 2016. Port and harbor design. In Springer Handbook of Ocean Engineering (Dhanak, M. R. and Xiros, N. I., eds). Springer, Cham, 685–710. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16649-0_31

(b) Article in journal
Hua, Z., Chen, J., Lun, S. and Wang, X. 2003. Influence of biosurfactants produced by Candida antarctica on surface properties of microorganisms and biodegradation of n-alkanes. Water Res., 37, 4143–4150. 

Article by DOI (with page numbers)
Engelbrecht. J., Tamm, K. and Peets, T. 2021. Continuum mechanics and signals in nerves.
Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, 70(1), 3–18.
https://doi.org/10.3176/proc.2021.1.02 

Article by DOI (before issue publication and without page numbers)
Kruger, M., Brindis, C. D., Manuel, D. M. and Sassoubre, L. 2007. Lessons learned in systems change initiatives: benchmarks and indicators. American Journal of Community Psychology.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-007-9108-1

Article in electronic journal by DOI (non-paginated version)
Mueller, J. K. and Tyler, W. J. 2014. A quantitative overview of biophysical forces impinging on neural function. Physical Biology, 11(5), 051001. https://doi.org/10.1088/1478-3975/11/5/051001

(c) Article in collection
Kuusk, A. 1991. The hot spot effect in plant canopy reflectance. In Photon-vegetation Interactions. Applications in Optical Remote Sensing and Plant Ecology (Myneni, R. B. and Ross, J., eds). Springer, Berlin, 139–159.

(d) Conference paper
Mortari, D. 1997. ESOQ-2 single-point algorithm for fast optimal spacecraft attitude determination. In Proceedings of the Space Flight Mechanics Conference, Huntsville, AL, USA, 9–12 February 1997. AIAA, 817–826.

(e) Organisation’s publication
IEA. World Energy Outlook 2021. https://doi.org/10.1787/weo-2016-en (accessed 2021-12-07).

(f) Organisation’s website
Food Marketing Institute. https://www.fmi.org/ (accessed 2018-12-07).

(g) Thesis
Kinash, N. 2020. Inverse problems for generalized subdiffusion equations. PhD thesis. Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia.  

(h) Patent
Koschar, M. 2012-11-29. Easily removable nail polish composition. Patent DE102011102661A1.

If the numerical style is used, references should be numbered preferably consecutively at the appropriate place in the text by using square brackets (e.g. [1]). A list of references should appear at the end of the paper.

EXAMPLES FOR NUMERICAL STYLE:

(a) Book
Porubov, A. V. Amplification of Nonlinear Strain Waves in Solids. World Scientific, Singapore, 2003. 

Book by DOI
Garfinkel, A., Shevtsov, J. and Guo, Y. Modeling Life. Springer, Cham, 2017.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59731-7

Book chapter
Abrate, S. and Di Sciuva, M. Multilayer models for composite and sandwich structures. In Comprehensive Composite Materials II (Beaumont, P. W. R. and Zweben, C. H., eds). Elsevier, 2018, 399–425.
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-803581-8.09885-4

(b) Article in journal
Milnor, J. On the Betti numbers of real varieties. Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, 1964, 15, 275–281. 

Article by DOI (with page numbers)
Engelbrecht. J., Tamm, K. and Peets, T. Continuum mechanics and signals in nerves. Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, 2021, 70(1), 3–18.
https://doi.org/10.3176/proc.2021.1.02 

Article by DOI (before issue publication and without page numbers)
Kruger, M., Brindis, C. D., Manuel, D. M. and Sassoubre, L. Lessons learned in systems change initiatives: benchmarks and indicators. American Journal of Community Psychology, 2007.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-007-9108-1

Article in electronic journal by DOI (no paginated version)
Mueller, J. K. and Tyler, W. J. A quantitative overview of biophysical forces impinging on neural function. Physical Biology, 2014, 11(5), 051001.
https://doi.org/10.1088/1478-3975/11/5/051001

(c) Article in collection
Hansch, C. Recent advances in biochemical QSAR. In Correlation Analysis in Chemistry (Chapman, N. B. and Shorter, J., eds). Springer, Boston, MA, 1978, 397–438. 

(d) Conference paper
Daffalla, M. M., Tagelsir, A. and Kajo, A. S. Hardware selection for attitude determination and control subsystem of 1U cube satellite. In Proceedings of the 2015 International Conference on Computing, Control, Networking, Electronics and Embedded Systems Engineering (ICCNEEE), Khartoum, Sudan, 7–9 September 2015. IEEE, 2016, 118–122.

(e) Organisation’s publication
IEA. World Energy Outlook 2021. https://doi.org/10.1787/weo-2016-en (accessed 2021-12-07).

(f) Organisation’s website
Food Marketing Institute. https://www.fmi.org/ (accessed 2018-12-07).

(g) Thesis
Kinash, N. Inverse problems for generalized subdiffusion equations. PhD thesis. Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia, 2020.

(h) Patent
Koschar, M. Easily removable nail polish composition. Patent DE102011102661A1, 2012-11-29.

Summary
The manuscript with at least one Estonian author should include a summary in Estonian (not obligatory for foreign authors).

notations and abbreviations

Notations must be clear, compact and consistent with standard usage. All notations and abbreviations should be defined in the text. Avoid abbreviations in the title and abstract. The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement.

Equations should be numbered consecutively with equation numbers enclosed in parentheses in the right margin of the page. In the text, reference to an equation should appear in the form of an equation number enclosed in parentheses.

Lettering (upper- and lowercase letters, italic, bold) should follow the usage in the text. Different parts of a figure should be marked by lowercase letters in parentheses. The size of symbols and lettering should not be smaller than 1.5 mm.

illustrations

Illustrations should be sent in separate files, prepared in their final format (i.e. no enlarging or reducing will be necessary) and should fit into the print area of the journal. All illustrations should be sharp and readable. The maximum size of an illustration is that of one journal page (166 mm × 228 mm) or of one column (80 mm × 228 mm). Each illustration must be clearly numbered, indicated at the appropriate place in the text and include self-explanatory legends. The text, tables and illustrations should not repeat one another.

Photographs (digital or scanned) should be saved as .tif or .eps files at a resolution of at least 300 dpi.

Colour illustrations should be in RGB and CMYK mode (resolution at least 300 dpi). Authors will be asked to cover the full cost for reproduction of colour artwork at a rate of €45 for one printed page. Colour figures online will be published free of charge.

If previously published figures or tables are included, written permission (for both the print and online formats) must be obtained from the copyright holder prior to submission, except for publications with open access licences. Previously published material should be identified by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure/table caption.

Supplementary online material

Large data tables, figures, photos and long descriptions, which do not fit into the printed version of the paper, can be published as online supplementary material.

All supplementary data files should be included at the first submission. The files should be ready for publication – these are not edited by the journal copyeditor. The data should be cited in appropriate places in the article text and a section ‘Supplementary online data’ added before the list of references, listing all data files associated with the paper.

submission

Manuscripts for the Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences should be submitted online. The submitting author, who is generally the corresponding author, is responsible for the manuscript during the submission and peer-review process. The submitting author must ensure that all eligible co-authors have been included in the author list and that they have read and approved the submitted version of the manuscript. To submit your manuscript, register and log in to the submission website. If you have any problems with our article submission system, please contact hedi.tonso@eap.ee.

Please take time to read and follow the instructions, as doing so will ensure your paper matches the journal’s requirements.

The attachments sent through the submission system should include:

• a covering letter (.doc, .docx, .rtf);
• text files of the paper in Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx, .rtf) or LaTeX (.tex) format (other TEX versions are not accepted);
• a PDF file of the paper (text, illustrations and tables in one file);
• original files of illustrations and/or tables (.xls, .xlsx, .tif, .eps, .psd, .ai).

COVERING LETTER

A covering letter must be included with each manuscript submission. It should be concise and explain why the content of the paper is significant, placing the findings in the context of the existing work. It should explain why the manuscript fits the scope of the journal.

The covering letter should also include a statement of novelty explaining what makes the research new, original and significant. The explanation should avoid jargon and highly technical language and not exceed 300 characters with spaces. 

The covering letter is required to include the following statements:

• Authors confirm that neither the manuscript nor any parts of it are currently under consideration or being published in another journal.
• All authors have approved the manuscript and agree with its submission (to the journal).
• Authors must declare any personal circumstances or interests that may be perceived as influencing the representation or interpretation of the reported research results. If there is no conflict of interest, please state ‘The authors declare no conflict of interest.’

We accept manuscripts already posted to a preprint server but kindly ask you to make us aware of that in the covering letter. Please include a link to the preprint and, as appropriate, state how the manuscript has been adjusted/updated between deposition and submission.

ORCID

The journal recommends that all authors submitting a paper register an account with Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier (ORCID). Registration provides a unique and persistent digital identifier for the account that enables accurate attribution and improves the discoverability of published papers, ensuring that the correct author receives the correct credit for their work. As the ORCID remains the same throughout the lifetime of the account, changes of name, affiliation or the field of research do not affect the discoverability of an author’s past work.

The journal recommends that all authors include an ORCID within their submitting author details. ORCID numbers should be added to the author details upon submission and will be published alongside the submitted paper, should it be accepted.

Authors will also need to follow these instructions on the ORCID website: https://support.orcid.org/hc/en-us/articles/360006896394-Auto-updates-time-saving-and-trust-building.

latex style files

To ensure compatibility and access to the latest features, we recommend using either LaTeX 2023 or LaTeX 2024 for your projects.

Microsoft Word versions are preferable unless the manuscript contains complex formulas. Authors are asked not to use specially defined macros. If it has been necessary to define the commands, they should be added to the text file.

article processing charges

When submitting an article to the Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, the corresponding author agrees to pay the article processing charges. The charges (standard article publication fee or ‘fast track‘ fee, the excess page fee and cost of colour illustrations) are payable by the author, their institution or funder of the research.

An invoice with the bank details will be sent to the corresponding author. Prompt payment is advised, as the article will not be included in the production cycle until payment is received. Payment should be made in euros to the bank account of the Estonian Academy Publishers.

To partly cover the publication costs, the Estonian Academy Publishers charges a standard article publication fee of €700 for papers up to 12 printed pages. For all papers longer than 12 printed pages, an additional charge of €80 will be requested for each extra page. The publication fee for a short communication (max. 4 printed pages) is €350. The ‘fast track’ publication fee is €1400 for both standard articles and short communications. Authors will be asked to cover the full cost of the reproduction of colour illustrations at a rate of €50 per one printed page. Colour figures online will be published free of charge. The fee of extensive language editing or reference restructuring is €300. This fee is charged only when the quality of English or the formatting of references does not meet the minimum standards required for production. Authors will be informed before the service is initiated and invoiced together with other article processing charges.

Description	EUR
Standard article publication fee (max. 12 printed pages)	700
Short communication publication fee (max. 4 printed pages)	350
Excess page fee (1 printed page)	80
Colour illustrations (1 printed page)	50
‘Fast track’ publication fee (incl. colour illustrations)	1400

Please note that APC rates will change starting from 1 January 2026. APC rates effective from 1 January 2026 are presented below.

Description	EUR
Research and review article publication fee (max. 12 printed pages)	800
Short communication publication fee (max. 4 printed pages)	400
Excess page fee (1 printed page)	80
Colour illustrations (1 printed page)	50
‘Fast track‘ publication fee (incl. colour illustrations)	1600
Extensive language editing and/or full reference list reformatting (applied when the manuscript does not meet the required English language standard or reference style)	300

No handling fee is applied to the manuscripts rejected by the publisher.

The standard publication fee for articles up to 12 printed pages will be waived by the Estonian Academy of Sciences to the authors whose work was supported by Estonian granting agencies or other Estonian funding bodies, and the authors have explicitly stated this information in the acknowledgements. Requests for waivers of publication and/or excess page fees should be presented in the covering letter.

The authors of review papers are free of publication fees and additional charges for extra pages.

fast track

After the final decision about manuscript acceptance, the authors can apply for the ‘fast track’ publication. If this application is accepted, the paper will be included in the next issue. Due to the extra publication costs, the authors will be asked to pay a ‘fast track’ publication fee. ‘Fast track’ publication fee includes colour figures.

proofs

The author (or the corresponding author) will receive a PDF file for correcting printer’s errors. No changes may be made and no new material inserted in the text at the time of proofreading.

offprints

Payable offprints of an article (min. 10 copies) can be ordered from the Editorial Office at the proof stage.